>>>Hacker? Bugs in the software?
>>
>>Seem bug at this time...
>
>Not a feature?
>;)

Could as well be a feature. Remember Enron and the way they manipulated the market. Buy off the state system, then shut down several plants as unprofitable, then declare a shortage whenever one of the remaining ones fails, to be able to charge emergency prices. Also, read up on the history of rolling blackouts in New York state and California in the late nineties. One of the reasons for it was that, in order to be easier to sell, the system had to be displayed as highly profitable, which meant firing all the most expensive workforce, and skimping on maintenance. The system was left to work on automatic. When the first plant failed, the automatic rerouted power from the neighboring plants, which then failed and automatically relied on their neighbors. There was nobody knowledgeable left to turn it off, they were all fired as too expensive.

I have no reason to believe that this practice is forgotten or abandoned.